Rolling in the Windy City since 2015

Hobby thoughts

Musings on the greatest hobby in the world – tabletop miniatures.

3/14/18 – With the Bolt Action projects just about done I’ve shifted hobby time to my three entries for painting contests at Adepticon; two for Crystal Brush and one for Badger Games. This is my first year entering in Crystal Brush and my first time ever painting a 54mm model. I’ve set my expectations accordingly. Crystal Brush is one of the premier miniature painting competitions on the planet and professional painters dominate the stage. My goal is to make first cut. I know it’s a stretch I wanted to set an intense goal for my painting.

3/13/2018 – When I make a lot of hobby progress, the blog content drops. Last weekend was two major hobby days but just a couple Instagram posts is all the documenting we did. I need to find a balance between hobby progress and creating content. Major updates include: display board build and ready to be sanded then primed, bases for the vehicles are done, vehicles just need weathering powders and then they are done, infantry only need a couple coats of matte varnish and they will be done. Still a lot of work needed on my Crystal Brush entry though…

3/8/2019 – While listening to The Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast last night one of the hosts, Tony, made an excellent point. Input and output specially with hobbies. There is input everywhere – peak TV, the golden age of gaming, movies, books, comics, social media – the list goes on! Us hobbyists are trying to balance that with output. So go an complete that new army project, finish painting that display model, produce a podcast, write a new blog article. Anything that creates output.

3/7/2019 – Made progress on something I never thought I’d work on again – movement trays. Not since the days of WFB have I needed to paint a movement tray. But, with the ASOIF Adepticon tournament right around the corner I need to paint my Free Folk army and there is no way I am showing up with bare, grey plastic movement trays.

3/5/2019 – With confirmation of the ASOIF painting requirement at Adepticon I have an additional 50 models to paint in the next three weeks. I am still working out the approach strategy to bring models that meet the minimum while still being ‘in-progress’ so I can go back and finish the army after the event.

3/4/2019 – Finished up the last batch of infantry for Adepticon Doubles last night bringing the total to 52 infantry models. It was a slog. But, seeing the four completed squads and two LTs all completed made it worth it. I need to remember the feeling of completion when I start to loose motivation during these bigger projects.

3/1/2019 – Seeing the fully painted collections in Dave Taylor’s Armies & Legions & Hordes has made me do some re-evaluation of my hobby. Seeing Dave’s collection, he has multiple completed armies or warbands for so many game systems. We live in an absolute golden age of tabletop gaming and there are just so many games to play. I now realize I want to have a fully painted force for a variety of games that I could use whenever. For example, I need a painted force for Frostgrave, ASOIF, Arena Rex (only have three models painted), Black Powder, and LotR just to name a few.

2/26/19 –Warlords of Erehwon. I had completely written this off as some trash when it was announced. But after listening to the Warlord Games Podcast interview with Rick Priestley (Ep. 10), I must admit I am intrigued. Just listening to Rick explain the entire philosophy behind the game is fascinating. This is worth another look.

2/25/19 – I was talking to Ben about Adepticon 2020 (because it’s never too soon to start planning) and a full motorbike / Kubelwagen early-war Blitzkreig army would be really, really cool. And those new motorbike rules in France book…worth a look.

2/25/19 – Why have I never seen a Kugelblitz in Bolt Action? This thing is off the chain cool. Let’s give the Bolt Action rules a look – whoa. I should get one.

2/24/19 – Dave Taylor’s Armies & Legions & Hordes arrived from KS. The first “Top Tip” is to create a hobby journal with the goal of capturing your thoughts on hobby projects. So, let’s give it a shot.